If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Moments of horror....

So with a 1,000 mile drive in front of me, I jumped in the car, and went down to the local Chevron to fill her up, and put air in the tires, but when I tried to restart after putting the gas in - nada!

Called the office, got someone to come down and tried jumping - nada.

The little window in the fairly new battery was green, so all should have been good, but the car wasn't having it.

I got my studio manager to run over to Beverly Hill BMW and pick up a new one, and thank heavens that worked - phew!!

Moral of the story, the Z8 eats batteries, this one was dead after 26 months, and even though it started the car just moments earlier I was too dead to even allow a jump, and that was trying off both trunk and hood connectors. Conveniently it survived to just beyond its 24 month warranty!!

Andrew Macpherson

Expert Z8 Inspections, with full support for both Z8 sale and purchases.

Curious

Andrew, just curious, but did you keep your battery on trickle charge while stored?
My prior Z8 went through its' battery in about 2.5 years of periodic use and I kept the charger on the car while garaged.

Anyone remember what group size and CCA the Z8 likes or can take? Anyone here have better or worse experience with any particular brand of battery?

In anticipation of tonight's event with Henrik Fisker, I went out to go get gas in the Z8. Nothing. Drove the car last week with no issues but it was dead. Called my independent BMW mechanic George from Bimmers Clinic and they were at my house in less than thirty minutes with a new battery. They are faster than Dominoes Pizza! Anyways, this proves these batteries can go without any warning. The battery that was in the car was less than two years old but the car has had very little use since then.

The short answer is yes! The fact that my Z8's original battery lasted nine years and that I replaced as a precaution notwithstanding, two to four years is the average for just about every other BMW I've owned or currently own.

As we've discussed in several battery threads. The BMW (Deltran) charger is a "dumb" device. It doesn't work to extend the life of your battery. The CTEK or my preferred AccuMate are far better alternatives.

I don't. I go straight to the battery. They make an easy to attach/detach cord where part stays connected to the battery- you can snake it right out from the trunk "floor". Whenever possible I prefer to go right to the battery, I try to avoid the "comfort" terminals.

I run Accumate on several of my cars and a 1959 Ford Tractor. Love them.

Rifle, Mine are the version that have the switch on front for the Odyssey batteries. Those are no longer available. Do you have any first hand knowledge of how the new units perform for AGM type batteries?
.

2000 Red over black
heavily modified for performance. Although, not to the level of GM's car

Do you mean when the cars are not in use or when the CTEKs are not in use?

You should leave the tenders on the cars as often as you can because you never know when youll remember to go out to plug the tenders into the cars. When you plug them in- first connect the tender to the car- then connect the tender to the wall electricity.

The CTEKs have a microprocessor that knows how long its been on a car and when its on for a while (I think 2+ weeks) it will recondition the battery. This helps extend the battery life.

I think that can happen but the question is what happened in that case. I heard about a toyota that caught on fire. Yet there are millions of toyotas on the road right now not on fire. Same thing here.

The story goes that the owner did not drive the car during the winter season and kept the trickle charger connected all the time: battery got weaker and weaker and the trickle charger devastated the battery at last. But unknown is what charger was in use etc etc.

I saw a Toyota Prius crash into a stone wall right in front of my very eyes- and in front of me while driving. The driver was absolutely sure it was "unintentional acceleration". In reality it was that she was sure her car was defective and some how panicked and hit the throttle instead of the brakes...

I feel a little sheepish posting this but I still have the orig battery in my 2001 Z8 Euro. If she sits more than a day or two, she's on the trickle charger. I usually keep one of my keys in the ignition (recalling a tip from Andrew about this helping to keep the key's battery in the pink.) All of the advise I have read says ditch the battery before it ditches you but now I am on a mission to see just how long she lasts.

Edited to add: I use the BMW charger (am on my second charger) Have about 27000 miles and she is stored winters.

Last edited by jdillane; April 6th 2013 at 18:18.
Reason: additional info

I feel a little sheepish posting this but I still have the orig battery in my 2001 Z8 Euro. If she sits more than a day or two, she's on the trickle charger. I usually keep one of my keys in the ignition (recalling a tip from Andrew about this helping to keep the key's battery in the pink.) All of the advise I have read says ditch the battery before it ditches you but now I am on a mission to see just how long she lasts.

Edited to add: I use the BMW charger (am on my second charger) Have about 27000 miles and she is stored winters.

When they let go and are on a charger, especially the poor quality deltran charger, they can boil over

2000 Red over black
heavily modified for performance. Although, not to the level of GM's car

I'm a dunderhead. Left my key in ignition in the on position and totally drained my battery. While I believe its finally time to retire my original just shy of 14 yrs of faithful service, if I were to get a portable battery jumper which model should I get?

Anyone else have experience with lithium batteries? Mine is going on three years now without problems. I let it discharge totally this winter by accident with no apparent ill effects. It was on the expensive side, 500$, but it's also massively lighter than the lead acid battery.

Surprised to hear of the battery problems. The battery in my silver one lasted 8 years to the day (but only had 3,700 miles on it; does the constant engine starting bring down the life? Since replacement, it has lasted 5.5 years. The black Z8 battery lasted 4 years, has now gone another 8 years. Shouldn't jinx myself. Both replacements were from BMW. As to chargers, I buy Deltrans and have had excellent results. I have 16 of them, and in 15 years have only had one fail (other than the one I destroyed by backing out of the lift.....and not disconnecting the plug....).

Hi JoeA2
"The Battery info is PC 1350 Group 49 with SAE Terminals. I bought an Odyssey.""
Are you still using this Odyssey PC 1350 battery and is the footprint similar to OEM battery?
Thinking of replacing current Interstate Batteries Mega-tron II MT-49/H8 to Odyssey. Cheers Peter